


You Told Me

by historyofamanda



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love, Healing, Love, Love Confessions, Reunions, Romance, Shakarian - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 03:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6837502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/historyofamanda/pseuds/historyofamanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrus visits Shepard at the hospital for the first time since the Reapers were destroyed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Told Me

**Author's Note:**

> •The events of this story take place after the Destroy ending of ME3.

Shepard laid in her bed at Huerta Memorial, reading a book on the history of the asari that Liara had given her as part of a birthday gift last year. Shepard always had a passion for history and when Liara discovered that she was thrilled and gifted her commander a collection of history books on all the council species. Shepard smiled at the thought of her friends. She couldn't wait to see all of them again.

Shepard's heart was beating faster than normal, she could feel it and see it on the blinking monitor next to her bed. Today was the first day she was going to be allowed to have visitors since she was picked up from the wreckage of the Citadel after the Reapers were destroyed. She had gotten out with a broken leg, a few broken ribs and a body covered in bruises. She felt so lucky that she was picked up by the Normandy and taken to be treated so quickly. She ached all over, but the relief she felt from the end of the war that had plagued her for so long numbed much of the pain.

A nurse knocked on the door and poked his head in. 

"Commander? You have a visitor."

Shepard looked up from her book and there stood Garrus, visibly nervous, with a bouquet of white roses in his hand, her favorite flowers. He knew this because she always kept a few of them in a vase in her cabin. When he asked her about them one night, she said they reminded her of Earth, of the rose bush in front of her childhood home.

Shepard sat upright as best she could, even though it caused her pain. Her ribs hurt the most; she landed on the front side of her body after the explosion. Her face was bruised and her eyes were bloodshot but she smiled a bright warm smile at the turian she loved and his heart flooded with endless joy and relief.

Garrus was overwhelmed with every emotion imaginable, his legs threatening to give way as he approached her.

"Shepard-I....I can't tell you how relieved I am to see you, to know that you're alright. It's been torture not being able to be near you the last 48 hours."

She reached up and touched his face; he leaned his head into her hand and took her hand in his. He leaned down and kissed her softly, gently gliding his fingers through her hair as he pulled himself closer to her.

"Garrus-"

"Shepard, before you say anything there are some things I need to say to you. Things I've waited way too long to say."

Garrus was quiet for a moment, as if preparing himself. All the time he spent rehearsing what he was about to say was for nothing, as his emotions quickly took over.

"When they took me away after I got injured on Earth, you told me you loved me and I hesitated to say it back to you. I can't even begin to tell you how much that haunted me. Those hours that I didn't know whether you were dead or alive were the worst hours of my life. I couldn't stand that I couldn't be there by your side to protect you." He chuckled softly. "Even though you never needed protecting."

"I thought about everything we'd gone through and I immediately felt so much regret and pain."

Shepard's eyes began to well up with tears.

"I didn't hesitate to say it back because I wasn't sure. I hesitated because..."

Garrus looked down at the floor, and then right into Shepard's eyes.  


"Because the words didn't feel like enough for me to tell you how much I love you. The feelings I had were so big that I choked on my words as they left my mouth."

A tear escaped Shepard's eyes and rolled down her face, warm on her smiling lips.

"I love you more than I have ever loved anything. I would fight that damn war we just finished a thousand times over again if it meant keeping you safe. I remembered the first time you came down to say hello to me on the lower deck of the original Normandy. You tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned around, I nearly fell over. It was the first time I'd ever seen you out of your armor and you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I remember I actually dropped the wrench I was holding like the nervous wreck I was. Those big blue eyes, they made me forget how to breathe. I had never been attracted to a human before. But your eyes, your lips, that ridiculously beautiful smile of yours, you had me right then and there. When you kissed me for the first time that night after we got back onto the Normandy after we left Noveria, I knew I could never be without you again."

Blood rushed to Shepard's wet cheeks, her heart pounding in her chest.

"When I thought you were dead after the Collectors destroyed the SR-1, I didn't know what to do with myself. I went to Omega because I had to keep myself busy. I had to do something, anything, to keep me distracted from my grief. I rarely ate; I almost never slept for those two years. When I saw you again I couldn't believe it, it was nothing short of a miracle."

Garrus let go of her hand and looked down at his lap, sighing in frustration.

"I should have told you I loved you that day at the Citadel when you first said it to me. I was just so overwhelmed by what was happening that the air was completely taken out of my lungs. How could someone like you love someone like me? The great war hero Commander Shepard in love with a bitter ex-C-Sec officer turned vigilante, it almost didn't seem possible. I was an idiot and ended up trying to say something clever. I was furious with myself when we got back to the Normandy that night. There was never a moment when I doubted my love for you, I just couldn't get the words out.”

“Shepard, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

Shepard reached over and hugged Garrus as tightly as she could, then took off his visor and set it down on the table next to her bed. She took his head in her hands and pressed her lips onto his. He was trembling slightly.

"Garrus, I love you so much. You mean everything to me. You have no reason to be sorry."

She coughed a little and tucked her hair behind her ear. She looked down at her lap and smiled.

"I've always known." She said quietly.

"I knew you would say how you felt when you were ready, but in so many ways I knew. You told me you loved me every time you ran in front of me in a fire fight without even thinking about it so I'd never get hit before you. You told me when you let me ramble on for hours and hours about how angry I was at the council during all those nights on the SR-1 that we stayed up late and talked. You told me when you learned all those terrible human jokes just so you could make me laugh. You told me every time you pulled me close when we kissed and didn't let go."

"But-" Garrus began.

She put a finger up to his mouth.

"But, there's something you never did tell me that you really should have a long, long time ago."

"What's that?" Garrus said, curious.

"That you know for a damn fact Mr. Vakarian that I am definitely the better shot."

They laughed and he kissed her until the rest of the world melted away around them.


End file.
